Protists are predators of bacteria, and they help shape soil communities by munching on bacteria (sorry, bacteria). Researchers knew that protists could identify prey when they were in direct contact ...

Among the large cast of microbiome players, bacteria have been hogging the spotlight. But the single-celled organisms known as protists are finally getting the starring role they deserve. Among the ...

Pac-Man, the open-mouthed face of the most successful arcade game ever, is much more well-known than any of the one-celled organisms called protists, at least among people over 30. But the first study ...

Since the Victorian era, categorizing the natural world has challenged scientists. No group has presented a challenge as tricky as the protists, the tiny, complex life forms that are neither plants ...

Aim: General patterns of biodiversity, such as latitudinal gradients and species-area relationships, are found consistently in a wide range of organisms, but recent results for protist diversity ...

Being single-celled doesn’t necessarily doom a creature to a simple life. A fresh look at a long-dismissed, century-old experiment suggests that so-called primitive organisms can behave in ...

We are all closely associated with microorganisms. The most common example is the human gut, where bacteria are necessary for digestion and health or can be responsible for illness. The plant ...

The following is an extract from our nature newsletter Wild Wild Life. Sign up to receive it for free in your inbox every month. New Scientist recently reported on something I’d never heard of before: ...